Pricing
Transparent usage-based pricing and service tiers for The Swarms API.
Usage-based pricing
Pay only for what you use with transparent, per-operation pricing
Perfect for non-time-sensitive workloads where cost savings are prioritized over speed. May have higher latency or require retries, but offers significant savings on token usage.
Automatic 75% discount on token costs between 8pm–6am California time. Applies to both Standard and Flex pricing tiers for maximum savings during off-peak hours.
Credit deductions
How credits are deducted and billing logic works
Service tiers
Choose the plan that fits your scale and performance requirements
Free tier
Pay as you go • Perfect for getting started
Premium tier
Best for growing businesses
On-Premise
Run on your own infrastructure
Enterprise
Unlimited scalability
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about pricing, billing, and features
How does the usage-based pricing work?
Credits are deducted from your account for each API call based on our transparent pricing structure. Free credits are used first, then regular credits. You're charged for base agent costs, input/output tokens, MCP calls, and image processing according to the rates in our pricing table.
What's the difference between Standard and Flex pricing?
Flex tier offers a 75% discount on token costs but may have higher latency or require retries. Standard tier provides consistent performance with standard pricing. Flex is perfect for non-time-sensitive workloads where cost savings are prioritized over speed.
How does the night-time discount work?
You get a 75% discount on token costs between 8pm and 6am California time. This applies to both Standard and Flex pricing tiers and is automatically applied to eligible API calls during these hours.
What are MCP costs and when are they charged?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) costs are $0.10 per call and are charged when an agent uses an MCP URL for external integrations like Notion, Supabase, or GitHub. This enables seamless integration with any platform supporting the MCP protocol.
How are swarm vs single agent costs different?
Swarm operations use different token pricing ($3.00/$15.00 per 1M input/output tokens in Standard, $0.75/$3.75 in Flex) plus $0.01 per agent. Single agent completions use $2.00/$4.50 per 1M input/output tokens and don't include the per-agent base cost.
Can I switch between pricing tiers?
Yes! You can upgrade from Free to Premium at any time. Your API keys remain the same, and the upgrade takes effect immediately. Premium users get increased rate limits, priority support, and access to the latest features.
What happens when I run out of credits?
When your credits are exhausted, API calls will fail with appropriate error codes. You can purchase additional credits or upgrade to Premium for higher limits. We recommend setting up billing alerts to monitor your usage.
How is image processing charged?
Image processing costs $0.25 per image across all tiers. This applies when agents analyze, generate, or manipulate images as part of their tasks. The cost is the same whether using Standard or Flex pricing.
What's included in the Premium tier support?
Premium users get 24/7 support through email, scheduled calls, and exclusive Discord channels with direct engineer access. You also receive priority processing, access to closest availability zones, and early access to new features.
How does the on-premise license work?
The on-premise license ($9,999/year) includes complete Docker deployment, full source code access, unlimited usage, and 1-year enterprise license with priority support. Perfect for organizations requiring data sovereignty and custom deployments.
Start building today
Get started with transparent pricing and pay only for what you use